The Coldest Winter

Overview

David Halberstam's magisterial and thrilling The Best and the Brightest was the defining book for the Vietnam War. More than three decades later, Halberstam used his unrivalled research and formidable journalistic skills to shed light on another dark corner in our history: the Korean War. The Coldest Winter is a successor to The Best and the Brightest, even though in historical terms it precedes it. Halberstam considered The Coldest Winter the best book he ever wrote, the culmination of forty-five years of writing about America's postwar foreign policy.

Up until now, the Korean War has been the black hole of modern American history. The Coldest Winter changes that. Halberstam gives us a masterful narrative of the political decisions and miscalculations on both sides. He charts the disastrous path that led to the massive entry of Chinese forces near the Yalu, and that caught Douglas MacArthur and his soldiers by surprise. He provides astonishingly vivid and nuanced portraits of all the major figures -- Eisenhower, Truman, Acheson, Kim, and Mao, and Generals MacArthur, Almond, and Ridgway. At the same time, Halberstam provides us with his trademark highly evocative narrative journalism, chronicling the crucial battles with reportage of the highest order.

At the heart of the book are the individual stories of the soldiers on the front lines who were left to deal with the consequences of the dangerous misjudgements and competing agendas of powerful men. We meet them, follow them, and see some of the most dreadful battles in history through their eyes. As ever, Halberstam was concerned with the extraordinary courage and resolve of people asked to bear an extraordinary burden.

The Coldest Winter is contemporary history in its most literary and luminescent form, and provides crucial perspective on the Vietnam War and the events of today. It was a book that Halberstam first decided to write more than thirty years ago and that took him nearly ten years to write. It stands as a lasting testament to one of the greatest journalists and historians of our time, and to the fighting men whose heroism it chronicles.

Editorial Reviews

"Another memorable slice of 20th-century history, measuring up to such earlier Halberstam classics as The Best and the Brightest and The Powers That Be." --Kirkus

"Commanding and evocative . . . Halberstam's final work stands as the coda to his enduringly famous The Best and the Brightest." --Booklist, starred review

"I could hardly put this book down. Meticulously and thoroughly researched, it is splendidly compelling reading. The Coldest Winter is a superb conjoining of all the factors of this tragic war: the military tactics and strategy of both sides; the international diplomacy; the internal politics; the personalities of the various players. A great work." --Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.), co-author of We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of David Halberstam

David Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934 in New York City and later attended Harvard University. After graduation, Halberstam worked at a small daily newspaper until he attained a position at the Nashville Tennessean. Halberstam authored The Children, a written account of his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, The Best and Brightest, which was a bestseller, and The Game and October, 1964, both detailing his fascination of sports. Halberstam also won a Pulitzer Prize for his reports on the Vietnam War while working for the New York Times.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Hyperion

Filesize

3.27 MB

Number of Pages

736

eBook ISBN

9781401389581

Awards

• Pulitzer Prize